A Man’s Face

Genre: Legal Suspense Thriller

Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/3Lyr1J

Logline

While trying to prove a client’s innocence, attorney Marc Jordan unwittingly crosses the path of the man who murdered his mother 15 years prior and fallen in love with the woman who burned his father alive in a suspicious winery fire.

Synopsis

A slash of a scar from cheek to chin is all Marc Jordan remembers of the man kneeling over his dead mother. As he searches his memory for clues and hopes he is the first one to find the killer, he becomes involved in a psychotic family intrigue. Murder, blackmail, corruption and betrayal leave a trail from the storied vineyards of Spain to the wineries of Southern California where no one is who or what they claim to be.

When he is forced to accept a court case he does not want, Jordan inadvertently unravels the threads that lead to solving his mother’s murder. With each revelation Marc’s life spirals out of control in this dizzying thriller. A Man’s Face is a multi-generational saga of treachery and corruption set in the backdrop of the elite wine industry and in the courtroom trial of Marc’s client who was sent to prison for the crime of the Ibarra family.

Excerpt

Fifteen Years Ago

Helena Morales hesitates, the carving knife still in her hand. She is a skilled chef, inheriting her talents from her mother who also gifted Helena with the set of hand-crafted knives engraved with the initials HM on the ivory handles. Startled, she turns at the sound of the screen door opening and closing.

“Oh, it’s you.” She puts down the knife, which is sticky with calf’s brains, and waves the unwelcome visitor away, annoyed.

“Please, Helena. I must talk with you. I can’t stand that you are angry.”

“It’s not the first time. I am not someone you can toy with. Leave me alone.”

“Mi amor, please let me explain.” He grabs her hand but she pulls away. “No. No more lies. I’m tired of it. I should never have gotten involved with you after Franco died.” The memory of her husband’s grisly death forms a pained expression on Helena’s face. He tries to cajole her with sweet talk and hands that move to caress her cheek.

Helena shoves him away hard and raises the knife at him. He stumbles and his back hits the kitchen counter.

A shooting pain sets him off. “Jesús que lastima! Bitch! I’ll show you what it means to hurt.” He kicks her shin to stun her and she drops the knife. He grabs her by the arm and twists it behind her back.

She is screaming now, “Stop it! Stop it! You’ll break my arm!”

He lets up a bit and Helena falls to her knees. “Get out! You are crazy!”

“Crazy for you. I love it when you are all full of fire.”

He grabs her by her luxuriant waist-length hair and tries to mount her from behind, but Helena finds her strength and rolls over onto him. They both scramble for the knife at the same time. A fierce battle ensues, but one prevails. In a moment it is over. The 6-inch blade disappears into her rib cage and Helena lies on the floor in a pool of oozing blood.

Feeling Helena’s lifeless body, Amador Ibarra is shaken to his core. “Dios mío. Dios mio!” he wails. Lo he hecho! What have I done?” He releases the knife to lift himself up from the floor. Helena’s blood now mingles with the blood seeping from a gash on Amador’s hand. He wipes it on his shirt and pants. Fiery Latino anger has now given way to a trembling fear. “What do I do? What do I do?” Startled by footsteps behind him, he turns to see the last person he wants to see coming through the door.

“Holy Christ, Pop!” Miguel Ibarra is stunned by the horrific scene created by his father. A kitchen once filled with the sounds of pleasure and the aroma of Helena’s amazing cooking now permeates with smells of blood and death. He grabs a towel and wraps his father’s hand in it. “Get out,” he orders. “Leave now before anyone else comes.”

Amador Ibarra’s formidable persona now seems diminished and small as dread overtakes him. He barely chokes out the question, “What are you going to do?”

The Cover-Up

“I don’t know, Pop, but you’ve got to go. Did anyone know you were coming here?”

“No. I took the old pickup and there was no one here but Helena. But you – why are you here? How?”

His son evades the question. “Did you touch anything? Are your fingerprints on anything?”

“I – I can’t remember – no. No! Just the door handle. The screen door. The knife -”

“Get home. Wash up and burn those clothes. Don’t let anyone see you. And wash the truck inside and out!”

Like a drunken old man, Amador stumbles out the kitchen door and, within seconds, his old truck is kicking up a trail of dirt as it carries him away to safety.

Miguel leans over to see if Helena is breathing. There is no movement, no sound. Her eyes are open in a sightless stare and nausea grips him. He grabs a kitchen towel and wipes the door handle clean. Spying the stained knife by her side, Miguel wraps it in the same towel.

Upstairs, Marcus Jourdain, 16, is totally absorbed with his new model airplane. The sleek aircraft buzzes around loudly in an imaginary flight pattern as Marcus manipulates the remote control with skill. Purposefully, he guides the miniature fighter jet out the window and into the airspace outside his second-floor bedroom. It loops and rolls and flies upside down, then rights itself. But without warning, the plane starts to nosedive toward the ground.

“No, no, no! Crap.” Marcus opens his bedroom door and takes the stairs two at a time to the living room. He stops short at the foot of the stairs. Some unfamiliar sounds catch his attention and he turns toward the kitchen. “Mom?” he calls. “Mom?”

Through the open doorway he sees movement. A man is kneeling next to his mother who is lying on the floor. He doesn’t recognize the intruder, but in that flash of time he notices the scar on the left side of his face, an ugly slash of a scar from cheek to chin. Swiftly, the man disappears from view.

Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/3Lyr1J

Read Barbara’s Interview om this site where she talks about all her books: https://writeanygenre.com/2026/09/29/barbara-roman/